Kremlin rejects reports of conversation last week between Putin and Trump

A spokesman for Mr Trump refused to comment on what he called his “private calls” with world leaders.

The Washington Post reported that the two spoke on Thursday, with Mr Trump advising Mr Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine and citing the sizable US military presence in Europe.

In a conference call on Monday with journalists, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said “there was no conversation” between the two, and the report at the weekend was “completely untrue, it is pure fiction”.

Asked about the report, Mr Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said: “We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders.”

Speaking at a foreign policy forum on Thursday in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, Mr Putin offered congratulations to Mr Trump on his election victory and praised him for what he said was “brave” behaviour during an assassination attempt on him in July.

Mr Peskov said “there are no specific plans yet” for a conversation between Mr Putin and Mr Trump.

He said previously that contacts between the two before Mr Trump’s inauguration “are not ruled out” and pointed to Mr Trump saying that he would call Mr Putin before the inauguration.

The Russian spokesman denied, however, that Russia’s presidential administration or Foreign Ministry had any contacts with Mr Trump’s campaign after the election.

During his campaign, Mr Trump repeatedly said he could quickly end the fighting in Ukraine, but did not offer details about how he would accomplish that.

Russia has intensified strikes on civilian areas in Ukraine as the war approaches its 1,000-day mark.

For its part, Ukraine sent a massive wave of drones that rattled Moscow and its suburbs over the weekend.